garda

See also: Garda, gardă, gardā, and gárda

English

Proper noun

garda (plural gardai or gardaí)

1. (Ireland, often in the plural) Alternative letter-case form of Garda.
   • 2025 October 22, Jim O'Callaghan, quotee, “Second night of unrest in Dublin as protesters target asylum hotel”, in The Guardian‎^[1], sourced from P. A. Media, →ISSN, archived from the original on 6 December 2025:

     He said gardaí had responded professionally to “thuggish violence” in the area and those arrested would be “charged, named and dealt with relentlessly” by the criminal justice system.

Noun

garda (plural gardai or gardaí)

1. (Ireland) Alternative letter-case form of Garda.
   • 2004, Ken Bruen, The Guards‎^[2], →ISBN, page 38:

     A garda was ambling towards us.

   • 2023 August 15, Ken Foy, “Garda trainee sent home from Templemore over tattoo says he has been treated ‘very unfairly‘”, in Irish Independent, page 6:

     A trainee garda who was sent home from Templemore Garda College after he was told the tattoo on his hand id not comply with the force's dress and uniform code said he has been “treated very unfairly”.

Anagrams

• Agard

Franco-Provençal

Verb

garda (Genevois)

1. alternative form of gouardar (“to guard”)

References

• garda in Lo trèsor Arpitan – on arpitan.eu

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡaʁ.da/

• Audio (France (Brétigny-sur-Orge)):

  (file)

Verb

garda

1. third-person singular past historic of garder

Galician

Etymology

From Old Galician-Portuguese guarda, probably a back-formation from gardar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɡaɾðɐ]

Noun

garda f (plural gardas)

1. guard, watchman, escort
2. (collective, military) guard, squad
3. (collective) police
4. (uncountable) guard; watch
5. (uncountable) protection; keep; custody

Derived terms

• A Guarda

Verb

garda

1. inflection of gardar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

References

• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “garda”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “garda”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “garda”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “garda”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “garda”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Gothic

Romanization

garda

1. romanization of 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌰

Indonesian

Etymology

From Portuguese guarda, guardar, from Old Galician-Portuguese guardar, from Medieval Latin wardō, from Frankish *wardōn, from Proto-Germanic *wardāną (“to guard”), from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to heed, defend”). Doublet of gardu.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈɡarda/ [ˈɡar.da]
• Rhymes: -arda
• Syllabification: gar‧da

Noun

garda (plural garda-garda)

1. guard, person who or thing that protects something

   Synonym: pengawal

Compounds

• garda depan

Further reading

• “garda”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Irish

Alternative forms

• gárda (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French guarde, from guarder (“to guard”), from Frankish *wardēn, from Proto-Germanic *wardāną.

Pronunciation

• (Munster, Connacht) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɑːɾˠd̪ˠə/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /ˈɡaːɾˠd̪ˠə/

Noun

garda m (genitive singular garda, nominative plural gardaí)

1. police officer, patrolman
2. escort
3. guard

Declension

Declension of garda (fourth declension)

bare forms singular plural nominative garda gardaí vocative a gharda a ghardaí genitive garda gardaí dative garda gardaí forms with the definite article singular plural nominative an garda na gardaí genitive an gharda na ngardaí dative leis an ngarda don gharda leis na gardaí

Synonyms

• constábla
• garda síochána
• péas
• póilín

Derived terms

• bangharda (“policewoman”)
• dul ar garda (“to mount guard”)
• Garda
• garda a sheasamh (“to stand guard, sentinel”)
• garda abhann (“river guard”)
• garda coille (“forest guard”)
• garda cosanta (“bodyguard”)
• garda cósta (“coastguard”)
• garda cuain (“harbour guard”)
• garda gradaim (“guard of honour”)
• garda rámha (“oar-guard, clamp”)
• garda saighdiúirí (“guard, body, of soldiers”)
• garda síochána (“guardian of the peace”)
• garda slabhra (“chain guard”)
• garda tine (“fire-guard”)
• garda traenach (“railway guard”)
• garda truicir (“trigger-guard”)
• gardáil (“guard”, verb)
• seomra garda (“guardroom”)
• teach garda (“guardhouse”)

Descendants

• → English: garda

Mutation

Mutated forms of garda

radical	lenition	eclipsis
garda	gharda	ngarda

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “garda”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla [Irish–English Dictionary], Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• “garda”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2026
• Sjoestedt, M. L. (1931), Phonétique d’un parler irlandais de Kerry [Phonetics of an Irish Dialect of Kerry] (in French), Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, page 45

Latvian

Adjective

garda

1. inflection of gards:
   1. genitive masculine singular
   2. nominative feminine singular

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from French garde.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡar.da/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -arda
• Syllabification: gar‧da
• Homophone: Garda

Noun

garda f

1. crossguard, quillon

   Synonym: jelec

2. (boxing) guard (way in which boxers position their hands in their stance)

Declension

Declension of garda

	singular	plural
nominative	garda	gardy
genitive	gardy	gard
dative	gardzie	gardom
accusative	gardę	gardy
instrumental	gardą	gardami
locative	gardzie	gardach
vocative	gardo	gardy

Further reading

• “garda”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[3] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “garda”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[4] (in Polish)

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɡarda]

Noun

garda f

1. definite nominative/accusative singular of gardă

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡâːrda/
• Hyphenation: gar‧da

Noun

gȃrda f (Cyrillic spelling га̑рда)

1. guard (of a sovereign or an army commander)

Declension

Declension of garda

	singular	plural
nominative	garda	garde
genitive	garde	garda
dative	gardi	gardama
accusative	gardu	garde
vocative	gardo	garde
locative	gardi	gardama
instrumental	gardom	gardama

Turkish

Noun

garda

1. locative of gar